I'm very pleased to announce Anthony theme of
thanks.
That's
a huggable do. I have no you have to look at this. And
I. A.J.
And I work together a few different ways and this is what brought me here A.J.
Is a musician in my projects but has also become some sort of
a business director for what has turned into
a business and I didn't expect that to happen so quickly and. So
swiftly I have no idea what's going on so. That's part of what I think I
want to take the next few minutes and talk about here with we've talked about
somebody like Colton where he can take his experiences and I and I use that word
again I'll use it a few times his experience is on a level where he can get into
a car with everything he needs and maybe if
a person or two and go into somebodies basement and entertain tell stories and take
that with him to get to the next level and then we're talking to people have an
Arena stand point where they're marketing these national acts that are coming in
that are we're talking six figures sometimes we're talking insane money and insane
visuals where really every single word you do place on that website cost money it's
important it means money you have to work correctly the right picture the right
angle the right colors all of the stuff is really important I'm at the position
right now where I'm making it all. And I'm throwing it up in the air and I'm saying
let's see what catches and let's see what works I'm going to thank
a position right now where it's been working for me but I'm analyzing what worked
and what didn't and it's taking me to the next level so I think this is an
interesting time for me to be able to speak so I think in my dialogue for the next
few minutes I'm going to be doing some self discovery and I may pop up something I
didn't expect to say or that made
a friend but I. I'm just going to be real and that I don't have an
outline either I usually don't but I'm having success with that so I'm going to I'm
going to go about this that way as well I'll tell a little bit of
a story about myself my name is Anthony D'Amato I grew up in New Jersey the Asbury
Park area which if you have you've heard
a few times today and it is very important to. The United States music
community it is one of the most vibrant music scenes in the country it's on the
beach and the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey. You can make
a living playing music in Asbury Park. You can play seven nights a week at
a club or
a bar or music venue to who knows who sometimes it's people just dining or
catching a drink or sometimes it's
a promoted an advertised event. And you can make
a few bucks here and there but you can pay your rent make
a living and do it all out of this one mile square mile really it's not really that
big of an area. You can also get stop playing music in
a square mile and never leave that area because you're the king of that little
square mile and everybody knows who you are and they're going to come see you and
yet the promoter that venue says Oh you brought thirty people that's all I really
need to get this night going so you could bring thirty people every week that's all
you really need so you're stuck playing this gig every week at the same spot and no
one else is really learning you unless they've decided to stop at that bar that
night or that venue and grab a drink so. Riffing off of Colton and A.J.
It is the perception that you need to create of yourself you need to project
yourself
a bit larger than you actually are to be able to attain those things to be able to
get out of your local scene or your local area or your blog or your internet
presence to project yourself as I am this and I've got this and I'm going to bring
this there's your challenge you put this challenge out there you then therefore
have to bring that you have to provide that to the people you bring because then
nobody you know what you just failed if you didn't give that confidence I'm almost
riffing on what everybody said today because we've covered so many things here and
it's all very true you have to have the confidence to be able to take yourself to
the level and then prove it so there is constant work there's never
a minute where I am not working there's never
a minute that anyone that I works with isn't working. It's
a lot I don't think you can be in this business and expect to rest.
If you expect
a time off I don't know I've never I've never had the time off I don't think I
could say that and if I do I'm like scheduling the time off I'm saying to my team
and myself Monday through Wednesday I'm shutting myself off and turning my phone
off and I'm doing this and I It is part of my work to tell you that I'll miss you
when I'm gone and I will be thinking about you and some part of my head but I need
this for my physicality and my mentality to recharge at this time. Because when I'm
coming back come back I'm going to do it there's no easing in and out of this
business it is cutthroat it is real it shouldn't be scared. It's like
a dog scenario you know you face
a dog and if you're scared of the dog the dog knows it gets this anxious energy and
starts despite Well that's going to happen in any any situation Colton mentioned
sending an email out that he could have done twenty percent less of half
a paragraph Well that's because it's cutthroat because you post the thing on
Facebook and the words are precise but do I want to go any further than two
sentences now I'm going to like. There's something I've got I'm going to do
something else that just I really want to do in that moment that's more important
to me so this these techniques and this knowledge that you're gaining here today is
very important this is
a very special place to be today if anybody's realizing this but I certainly didn't
have to stay here all day Gary you don't have to come here all day and listen to
everybody else because you've been through these things but it's important to see
how this of Bols tomorrow someone here will have developed an idea that I didn't
think of and take it and run and I'll be like. You know I wish I had that you got
to remember the song by C.L.O.
. It appeared on your computer first in
a lyric video where the lyrics just came out that there's I don't know the name of
the animation but it's
a thing I looked at it said I can't believe I didn't write that song. Oh my
God. And I wrote my bag as it were covering this song at our show on Friday and
people thought we wrote it because they still hadn't heard it yet. It became so
many different things and because it came the water down forget you which I think
please if I'm going to cover it Nowadays I try not to even do it if I have to say
forget you but it was an important moment to me and music single that you thought
could never happen you can't do that song It's why would you be able to put that
and make that
a number one and you just went ahead and did that confidence and that bravery let
me continue to tell my story about myself because there's
a lot of bravery. Yes confident I was a common statement I'm
a brave new I'm
a brave new. And I'll explain why so group is this dude my name is Adam out of this
is a very important part of the story as well I grew up as a fat kid
a big really heavy set kid nothing that ever bugged me down in terms of my
relationships with people. What it had me do or what it didn't have me do I was
a big guy with big hair this would this would come up on the screen if I bothered
to do that right now but. You could look it up I was
a big guy with big hair and big singing voice singing so rock blues music big band
I was like What else do I need this is the gimmick this is it this is perfect you
know then I started to have panic attacks and not fit on rides which meant I love
a roller coaster if you've got three people squeezing me into the Superman right
there's
a problem. You know these things these things are happening to me in my life and in
the background going but you know what I'm doing well you know I'm healthy I'm fine
I'm waking up every morning and I'm playing music to twenty or thirty people that's
all right I love my life drinking Jack and Coke saw the time at the bar because
it's free it's
a realistic skimming of the order why not you know. I'm thinking this is the life
for me a twenty four years old and and when I started to realize that I was worth
a greater life and I was worth a longer life that inspired me to make
a change and I did I lost two hundred fifteen pounds in
a year. Never expected that to happen to myself I never expected that my body
and my mentality would completely change. After doing that I had to learn how
to live that way which I'm still learning that's been about seven years and it's an
every day sort of struggle. Music was the through line for me however what changed
for me was performing as a three hundred seventy five pound soul singer to
a one hundred seventy five pound soul singer. As
a big guy that was it there was the picture there was the model there was my poster
there was my face there was meatloaf there was John Popper there was all my things
that I identified with and I was cool with that now I'm a lot like
a lot of other people so what do I do to stand out. Let me just play my gig sigh
I ran Chicago lived for three years. With
a band that was somewhat funded lost the funding through certain other things I
thought this was the thing I'm going to do I'm going to front this indie rock band
and it's going to be bad ass and it's going to take me to the next level and I
wasn't able to do what I had always thought I had to do for myself which was the
identifiable which was project myself
a larger than I actually was I was kind of down in this process and quickly learned
after recording this record. Crying and not being able to pay my rent in and eat
in Chicago because I knew this many people as opposed to the king where I was in
Asbury Park where I could play all seven days long and king use the word loosely
but Colton understands I mean we call
a venue up we we have this relationship we're all going to bring somebody there to
put together
a great show you sure do it go ahead. I want Chicago and no one knew me no one
cared and that hit me very hard and I experienced that band and by the end said
this isn't the vehicle for me to take to the next level. Throughout that time the
New Jersey edit your car
a theater performance I've toured with Jesus Christ Superstar in the musical Hair.
Mostly rock centric shows which limited what I could do in terms of the musical
theater world. Not going to take
a gig doing Oklahoma and I'm not going to sit on line with my red headshot resume
to audition for
a production of Oklahoma just because I need to work that's not me that's not what
I'm going to do I always knew I had to create it and while I'm creating this band
and Chicago realizing they weren't the right people was one of the most
heartbreaking decisions I ever had to make. We face
a lot as human beings you create
a relationship with someone you assume you know what to do you move in together and
you're fighting over the distance and you're fighting over things and I have these
conversations with every single person I know these little things start to tear
down the rest of it and that dream of what you were projecting yourself to be is
kind of all itself and that happened to me in two forms in Chicago I broke up with
my partner at the time and I ended
a band and I would walk down the street just crying tears but I learned
a lot from this experience from going from this high down to here from as we're
parked and playing New York City in Philadelphia to Chicago where no one knew me no
one cared to having these bands situations and I learned I think I have this gut
instinct I think I have this understanding of what feels right to me and what feels
wrong know what I'm saying feels. Have you guys ever done the Myers Squibb
sting the I and P.
That's me. No I am arguing that I mean I don't know how.
I'm introverted like when I'm done with the day but I'm
a pretty extroverted I mean that you sort of have to be in the scenario which
everyone saying here take that time to be extroverted go out talk to these people
you're at an event like this you have some you have some idea you know what I mean
you're here and you're out there however it is hard to face someone and I mean to
that. Age I mean I could if I didn't know you today
a meeting for the first time there might be this. You know kind of moment just
because that's you're naturally going there it's not to say I'm nervous but who
knows what that moment can create and in this business I'm told no more often than
I'm told yes so building that skin up is cool and these kinds of things are cool to
be part of so I'm jumping around
a lot I hope you're following me but I like that you keep the timing right my good
.
So anyway. I did this thing and I knew I had to come back in and I I started to
work in theater. I I presented original concept productions of
certain things that you are familiar with so the Rocky Horror Show. I did this
immersive theatre production where you walked into the atmosphere and you were
completely surrounded by them we had
a full rock band and I also played Frank and further so I had these five inch
platform heel moods and this bad ass bitch look you know that was very different
from what everybody perceives to be However what stayed intact was the feeling and
it still allowed you as an audience member to interact and recognize at the same
time what was happening I didn't go so crazy and so far fetched that you couldn't
grab onto it I still gave you that feeling that you normally feel with
a wink you know or with
a torn fishnet you know. They were really torn about in that athletes.
So something about that to me is important and aged mentioned tribute things that I
do and I'll get to that because we think of tribute and we think of
a certain thing and mine is somewhat different and that's why it's having the
success the tabbing. From from doing these musical theater productions and touring
with them and working with
a list of professionals that were part of the original productions I directed
a production of Hair which in one nine hundred sixty eight changed America
a musical changed America we can't really see that now we are seeing with Hamilton
if you're into that right now which is absolutely changing the country you have the
guy who wrote it and started rapping with President Obama I mean this is just
incredible I'm going to chill thinking about it because this is somebody who's just
in cling of an idea in their head. That has come to life in the biggest for me what
else do you want this guy is going to be able to sit back and do interviews while
high schools and colleges and professional theatres all over the country are
performing his work and he's just like. Money A.J.
a Lot. But he's also able to then have the power to create even more and
to touch people which is obviously his reason of doing this piece because you
wouldn't have felt it if you didn't go in with that right ten. Hair changed America
it was anti Vietnam was anti-war was anti-establishment it was anti dead end signs
it was anti everything in
a fifty or so song rock musical written by got McDermott Jim radio
drummer Agni and I invited the living writers to my production and the original
producer who saw the show in
a dive venue in New York City and said I'm going to put all my life into this
musical. All my finances into making this what I think it should be and that was
his name is Michael Butler and he's one of my mentors and he worked for Kennedy
John F.
Kennedy for president. For for those who are quite sure. He was in politics
this was
a part of his life and he was very driven by this musical and took it to Broadway
it garnished five or six
a number one hit singles which doesn't happen anymore that's certainly not
happening with Hamilton you're not hearing it on the radio stations you're picking
it up on Sirius or on the Internet and things like that but Good Morning Starshine
easy to be hard Aquarius let the sunshine in you probably know at least one of
those songs came from the musical Hair. You might have even known my dad saw my
production of parenting easy to be hard at Three Dog Night song you put that in the
show no I didn't but I just. Was like
a part of. So. Anyway they came to my production.
I invited them and they just felt in my messages to them that we need to come we
need to go and see this I don't know what it is but there's something about it
that's resonating vibrating out of this message I don't know what it was. But I was
feeling it and I put it out there and I said here's how I feel is what's happening
and it's very important and I hope you can check it out from there I got
a job assisting one of the writers of of hair he saw our show and the original cast
members from saw our show and said we have not seen another production since the
Biltmore Theater in New York City that is resonating with an audience in ourselves
and I didn't really have
a plan going into it I just said I invision this and I feel this and I'm going to
do it. I'm not forced there's nobody forcing me to do
a certain thing here I didn't put anybody in the show that I didn't feel was
authentic through my favorite words. That that didn't come into the room and make
me feel
a certain thing sure there were people that could sing around that girl they could
kill every single note they hit they could deliver
a song but they were one of the most boring people I've ever seen they they made me
feel nothing and then they left and I forgot their name but that chick who could
kind of sing two or three notes and was real shabby and we're gave me all of the
energy in the world and wanted it so bad why wouldn't I put her part of my thing
why wouldn't I find somewhere in what I'm working on that she can be
a part of because she's the one that will go knocking on every door she's the one
that would be the Street Team herself she don't care what anybody else doing she's
going to go and do it versus some of the other people that are part of the projects
that are well how much you know we got from it. I can't do that because I can't do
this I don't care I want here we have a thing to do as
a team we have to move forward and that was part of the success of that so I took
that and ran I moved on to obviously always having
a band and working on music I'm not songwriter first I wouldn't say that I am but
I'm
a song interpreter song stylist I like taking somebody else's work and doing what I
feel what it made me feel and therefore giving it to the people I trust like I'm
telling you about to then arrange and put their thoughts and their feelings into it
too and create this communal experience. So I started a band and I started
a project every tomato and the emancipation congregation and it was this cool kind
of thing for me for
a while because just invited my friends we barely rehearsed I gave some notes and
we were like just go out there and do your thing and people loved it people really
liked it we played weddings we did a couple things we would pack in
a venue one hundred people and do this the whole time I knew this other guy named
Anthony D'Amato. Not me I'm not talking about the three hundred seventy five pound
M.P.
The model I'm talking about I think the model who was also from New Jersey who just
got signed to New West records that it may and I sat at my floorboards living in
Philadelphia renting
a room and I knew at that moment I had to make another change in my life so I went
from performing his three hundred seventy five pound guy with
a lot of drive to performing its one hundred seventy five pound guy with
a lot of drive and I had to change the game you know this is just outrageous but
that to me was the only way I was going to succeed how do I do something then as
a brand let me brand what I'm doing as
a performer so that people can feel it the minute they see it. That's
a hard thing to do. But
a lot of people have done it we don't know Stephanie German Are we know Lady Gaga.
David Bowie's and her real name. Freddie Mercury is for Rubel Sora you know there's
all of these these major major names that we know that we've known as the branded
name and through a lot of things and this is why A.J.
Introduced me as two different things because I have to think. I came up with it
remember Jones long story short remember was one of the first words I spelled as
a kid and I kept saying to myself in this brainstorming. I need something people
are going to remember what are they going to see on
a piece of paper and not forget that's impossible I could have said remember Jones
and tossed it around over thought it for
a year and never actually committed to this name but I walked around Center City
Philadelphia I just saw it everywhere and like that's it that's what it is I called
my friend I said remember jump. So that's it and that's the next name we did
a debut show and put together
a fourteen piece band of the people that I felt resonated in understood what I was
doing we sold it out and people thought they should know who remember Jones was
before they even came to the show that was a part of the poster that was
a part of the pictures I was showing that was
a part of my marketing let me project myself to be larger than I am because I know
I can meet those expectations I know these people are going to come and see
a fourteen piece band with horns and flutes and funky arrangements and
a couple originals here and there and it will defy everything they thought about
before they came in which is they're not an original band doesn't matter. Or
forging pieces how are they going to make money are so many different things. I
created these communal experience is that engage the audience and I find it very
easy. You know I don't know even if I can define it really my father said and he's
this Jersey City New Jersey guy you know real New York John the model way and when
you sing people listen it's good it's good when something happens when you walk
into
a room and I don't I don't know if I can define that. I don't know if I can define
it either but he's right I have this confidence on stage as
a front man that I notice other people don't have but I notice singers that can
outsing me and I have
a wild vocal range but people can do it and they have more natural skill at that
where I feel like I have to put in
a little bit more effort to be on pitch or something to be in front of an audience
and to engage them is something that is always come natural so I took that energy
and spirit as well to put in these performance the next thing for us which is
probably only the second gig I had the song brainstorm idea I thought man I would
love to cover it Amy Winehouse song and I want to do back to black the song Back to
Black and I thought why not do the whole an album let's just do all the Back To
Black who's covering Back to Black This is definitely the band to do it with I
don't know another vocalist that could sing this material. You know maybe I know
a few women here and there but the mystique and what Amy Winehouse left behind was
so enormous so much bigger than what she actually was because she was having issues
and in the national spotlight in you kind of forget that for
a lot of us here maybe you heard that album as kind of an indie thing it was this
rough sound you're like oh man this is throwing it back and doing it right this is
really good and then rehab became a hit and then all the songs became
a hit and she was falling over on stage and everybody was writing about it on line
and it became this national thing anyway remember Jones in Back To Back to Black
a live presentation of the entire Amy Winehouse album we made the slam and poster I
knew that had to happen because no one knew who we were. We sold out we sold out
ahead of time we were even doing
a presale. The venue called me and said I'm opening up
a pre-sale because I'm getting more phone calls and we never got before and this is
as very lanes I put it in a venue that has
a stage in the middle of the bowling alley it's so weird and so beautiful and I
thought that's what this show is going to be this show is going to be me fronting
this twenty five piece band on
a bowling alley stage. And it's going to be some. Are you
down because if you're not down to find somebody that is and the that was
a good I was probably our first show together and I think you've rehearsed I think
we have
a couple phone conversations you were like oh man I feel this I'm down and we sold
it out and we've since sold out again at
a new venue that opened up in Asbury Park in downtown that thriving scene we'll get
up again we did a show again we sold out we did it out of town to
a nice reception that didn't promote the promoter backstage was waiting for me
before I came out for the encore and said you have an amazing show I'm sorry I
didn't promote. That happens to you know selling yourself on paper which now we're
talking about having the right photos and having the right press kit and all of
these things that we've talked about today I've learned the importance of that. Now
I've got it live for live music has written about us when we perform in Asbury Park
as we park press is one of the largest newspapers and in New Jersey we get in the A
section of the paper you know we're not in the entertainment section tucked in the
back there's
a half page about what we're doing because we've projected ourselves and we follow
through and we're touching
a community which is very important to me the communal effort of what I'm doing is
important would have twenty five people in the band just because I want twenty five
people in the band I like every single person they're very talented and maybe they
don't quite all have the drive to do this themselves. But there are very talented
and I want people to see that they may have
a project that they are playing to ten or twenty people that not many people are
listening. Not many people listen in
a place where not many people are listening nothing happens in
a place where nothing happens. So I'm going to put myself out there plan myself to
to do this we're taking the Amy Winehouse show on
a five city tour because this year is the fifth year that any White House passed
away with doing it the week of her death five cities I can't believe the guarantees
we've gotten from these venues just because they believe in the concept they see
the photos they see the articles they see the press and they get it as
a venue that this is something we can go do together so we heard
a lot of this kind of intense stuff from people saying there's
a promoter there's an agent there's this there's this is this how are you sitting
there going I've got to slam and record that no we're going to hear you like. How
am I getting all these people to believe in this am I going to be alive to see the
day that this is actually going to happen when in reality if you want to bad enough
you can do it all yourself. And that's what I do every single day it allowed me to
get I was called a full time job at a called
a part time job as an artistic director of
a one thousand seat theater in New Jersey. It's
a struggling theater but they have seen what I've done out of
a struggling business struggling music venues
a struggling scene and digits at five to five. I'm like I almost didn't see
action of you pointed out I don't like comedy stuff before and they like flash
a red light and things like that. I've
I'm working right now and it's funny I said yesterday you know man I fight with all
my staff yesterday on even if I want to talk whether they are at this place. Truth
be told OK place and I have
a strong vision for that I need to align people on this theater was in need
desperate need of rebranding itself involving and creating a social scene it's in
a city that not many people are in. That will support the arts you can't walk by
this theater and say I'm going to go in but you can certainly present anything you
want in there and we did my first project in there was we were the first people to
do trapped in the closet R.
Kelly. And we did it with a twenty piece orchestra and I had
a cast of fifteen lip sync to me singing every single word of it. It was
outrageous absolutely outrageous and to be honest we didn't know how we know that
but it was weird we had three hundred people show up it's
a thousand seat theater so as
a performer you're like Man this place is dead but nobody would have come there
before nobody has done trapped in the closet I've now made friends with red light
management R.
Kelly's manager because they were like just check in just want to be in touch just
want to see what you're doing because why are you the first person to do something
like this what makes you so special and what have you done and it was
a big success and we continue to do it so I think the overall my overall presence
here today is to tell you that anybody is really capable of doing absolutely
anything you want you need to ask for help you need to beg for help I think and I
come from a place
a few years ago where I thought no I'm going to act like I don't need help but when
I put out that I don't need the help and then I need the help at the same time.
Most people want to help if that makes any sense you know I'm projecting myself
larger than I am but I'm still saying I need help or I'm saying hey this bus has
still got
a couple seats on it come on up most people want to jump on board and they'll do it
for. What starts as low pay I mean in
a year we turn this project into all of us sometimes I'm paying twenty five to
forty people into making triple than we did the year before we're able to go on
a five city tour that I haven't even begin to think about hotel rooms and buses and
things like that we're going to figure it out and we're going to do it and when you
surround yourself with the right people and build yourself
a team you think of think of your music as
a business all of the stuff that everybody said before me is very very very true
and important and it's all open to opinion and it is all able to change and be
adapted to what you want to be. The people that you like the most are really the
ones who have stood out the most they've decided to go with something that maybe
they over thought and said you know what just let it happen because it's authentic
and it's real it's in the moment it's natural in it and it kind of feels right. My
voice sometimes I overthink but if nobody else is overthinking it then that's just
me put it out there and see what happens I can weave everybody here Gary speak if
he's got some fantastic insight that's you next right he's on his way out the door
let's go. But and I am very much looking forward to an open forum a Q.
And A later on because that's where I thrive but if anybody wants to talk about the
sort of things an artist development and how to start from nothing and make it into
something. My Something isn't that much greater than nothing right now but there's
a lot of projection and a lot of people on my side and that is worth
a lot more than money I see the next ten years for the first time in my life which
is very cool so I have to work to maintain that keep it together thanks for hearing
me out and I just want to share my experiences thank you.